09/03/2025
For generations, women were told they couldn’t stand behind the pulpit. But in the storefront churches of urban America, they did more than stand—they led. My latest Substack explores how Black migrant families from the South brought matriarchal traditions into northern cities, and how storefront churches became sanctuaries for women ministers when mainstream denominations shut them out. These spaces weren’t just churches—they were revolutions in real time.
Read the full piece: Sanctified Through the Storefront: How Women Found Their Pulpits on the Block
Alicea Peyton, PhD